Icarus

Sound

"Enlighten me, Mr. Alexander," Tate replied with a mocking tone. "Tell me what is going on in paradise, just what is bothering them so much that they'd send a celestial being such as you to take charge, Alexander, King of the Eastern Constellation, here on earth to torment my quiet summer evenings."

Alexander narrowed his golden eyes and whispered, "You sure are one of the most annoying creatures ever created."

"Well, let's say that if you don't like my current personality, not to worry because in less than two months I'll be reborn with a different one."

"Before then you won't exist anymore."

"And just who says that? You? Piero?"

"Cassie," Alexander prophetically declared.

Tate frowned. He didn't like the sound of Alexander's voice pronouncing her name. Alexander looked rather amused by Tate's sudden reaction.

"She is wants you dead."

"I'm pretty sure she wants me, if you know what I mean," Tate teased.

He hid his smile, thinking about the sassy implications of what he was saying. He attempted to mask his smile to show respect for Alexander. But did he really care about showing respect for the people who were trying to kill him all through the last centuries?

He cracked up, busting out laughing.

"Then tell me why is she planning on breaking your heart?"

The laughing ceased. "What are you talking about?"

"Heron gave her four weeks to prove she can fulfill the mission, if she doesn't... another apprentice will take her place. My apprentice," Alexander's severe look indicating he was deadly serious.

Tate knew for a fact that every king and queen guardian had an apprentice, a human apprentice. Each of them would be converted into guardians once they were assigned a mission. A ceremony marked when their human soul left their bodies, when the human part of them died to be transformed into a celestial being. Did Cassie have a ceremony or was her transformation something quick because of her terrible destiny to be the one who was supposed to be with him?

"And--and what would happen to her?"

"Sorry, you said I only had two minutes."

"Wait!"

In a blink of an eye Alexander disappeared in a storm of black clouds. Tate looked directly at the wall for a few minutes after Alexander was gone, narrowing his eyes and clenching his jaw. The pen he was holding was now broken on the floor. Analyzing each word that came from Alexander, the way he spoke, his gestures. He realized the game Cassie was playing. He realized he was being played by Cassie to gain the advantage in their impossible struggle. With both of his hands cupped together and his brows almost touching in fury, he screamed the only thing that came to his mind because of it's daily use,

"Oh, fuck!"

➳

The light from the window lit up the boy's back. He was staring at the once white wall in front of him. He felt a breeze from behind, While Alexander made a grand entrance, his apprentice merely turned around with a brush, dripping yellow paint to the floor, a floor covered in pictures and papers, a floor that hadn't been cleaned up in days.

"Any news?" he asked, taking a cell phone out of his pocket.

"I thought I should inform you that I spoke with Tate," Alexander said. "He is falling for Cassie but the look in his eyes when I told him that she would break his heart was... what are you thinking about, Petra-- I mean... Pete?"

Pete stood still, smiling. He had a perfect plan.

"I'm thinking about my first attack, it's going to be... memorable. Call me Petra once again and I swear I'll--"

"Ambitious little bastard," Alexander spat and they both exchanged nervous smiles. Petra had not been the same ever since Tate kicked him out of the band. He looked more threatening but Alexander knew it was going to happen ever since he changed his name to Pete.

"What are you painting?"

"Cascadia."

"As your master, should I be worried? Why are you painting her on your wall?"

"I believe in the appreciation of beautiful things, I like to keep them for myself. You see, Alexander, ever since I saw Cassie about a week ago when she was questioning Tate in that abandoned place, she's on my mind day all night."

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that."

"Hear what?"

They smiled again. Alexander thought the poor kid's obsession with Cassie was his own fault, but if being crazy is necessary to end Icarus' curse then he, himself would be the one pushing buttons, screwing threads and driving recklessly on the freeway to insanity to insanity with Pete on his backseat.